Max Lum, Ed.D, MPA (ICOHBuzz), was employed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) from 1995 until his retirement in 2011. Prior to his retirement he served as Communications Director, and subsequently he returned to NIOSH as a consultant. He grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Southern California. He died peacefully on November 19, 2024.

Max's role at NIOSH included spearheading the agency's communications on emerging media platforms, including social media. It was Wikipedia in particular that held a special place in his heart. Through his advocacy he succeeded in bringing in Wikipedians in Residence at NIOSH, whose responsibilities included contributing media collections and large datasets directly to the Wikimedia projects and training NIOSH staff on how to best contribute to Wikipedia.

Max advocated passionately for active participation on Wikipedia: not just within the United States government, but with occupational safety and health agencies all over the world. He presented at conferences in the United States, Denmark, Singapore, and elsewhere, on the value of Wikipedia to workplace safety agencies. He loved to travel, and he loved to tell people about Wikipedia while doing so. Directly or indirectly, Max helped to create new Wikipedia editors and give existing ones a renewed sense of purpose.

He will be sorely missed, especially by the Wikipedians who had the pleasure of working with him, and now carry on his work.